At any age people have the opportunity for choice, and the choices you make will sometimes change your life dramatically, while in other situations the choice you choose to make will not affect your life at all. Even though teens may sometimes make choices that will affect them and others around them in a bad way, having a wide opportunity for choice is extremely helpful for today's American teens. This is helpful because teens can find a way to solve problems in a mature manner and will have the opportunity to make choices that help others, not just themselves.
Teens will make bad choices here and there. At times a person might think they are making a good decision, but in reality the choice affects more than one person with unwanted consequences. In the text The Great Fire, it states “Schaffer glanced at the smoke, but dismissed the sighting. It was the smoldering embers from the previous night’s fire, he assured them. Nothing to worry about.” Schaffer’s decision to ignore the first sighting of smoke, based on his thoughts, affected most of Chicago resulting in the deaths of many of the residents. Having a choice does not mean you have total control of your actions. In the same text it states “Schaffer’s young assistant, William J. Brown stubbornly refused to strike Box 319, saying he was afraid it would confuse the situation.” Because William J. Brown did not strike the box, it led to chaos and the fireman could not get to the fire on time to stop it. Having the ability to make a decision does not mean you are in total control of your choices. When you are told to do something you have the responsibility to do it, unless it is something ridiculous that can put your life in danger. Also teens can make the choice to do somethin...
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...ol would lead me on the right path to success.
In conclusion, teens’ having the freedom of making their own choices has its down sides as well as its good sides. If someone is not able to make a decision that really was not right for them, then they would never know what it feels like and will not have the knowledge that they should not do it again. Most teens know what the right things to do are, especially when it comes to helping others, like their elders. Also, they know that they have to think about the decisions they are making and how the choice they make will affect them and those around them. There are approximately 600 students in Lorenzo Walker Technical High School. This means, about 600 teenagers chose to come to a school that would lead them on the right path. Essentially, having a wide opportunity for choices is helpful for today’s American teens.
In the book, Samenow strongly emphasizes that children become delinquent by choice. The theory of choice holds that youths will engage in delinquent and criminal behavior after weighing the consequences and benefits of their actions. Delinquent behavior is a rational choice made by a motivated offender who perceives that the chances of gain outweigh any possible punishment or loss. (Siegel & Welsh, 2011)
Parents must discover ways to help teens learn to make decisions that minimize the potential harm to themselves and others, and parents must also gradually relinquish control and place increasing amounts of personal responsibility onto teens so that they become self-regulating.
"The teenage brain is like a car with a good accelerator but a weak brake. With powerful impulses under poor control, the likely result is a crash.” (Ritter). An adolescent does not have complete power over their impulses, unlike fully developed adults. “The frontal lobe includes the prefrontal cortex, which controls executive functions like planning, decision-making, the expression of emotion, and impulse control. The prefrontal cortex may not be completely developed until a person is in his or her mid-twenties. This explains why adolescents have less impulse control than adults, are less able to think through the long-term consequences of their decisions, and are more susceptible to peer pressure. Does it make sense, then, to punish a youth in the same way we punish adults?” (Harris). The brain w...
Teens don’t think thoroughly about their decisions when taking actions, which could end up as results of regret. Teenagers are not wise enough to understand how things work therefore they have their parents to help them out make appropriate choices. The choices that are made in early life can affect the teenager in their future. The parents should advice their teens about the dangerous and precautions in life and how to deal with problems the right way. Teenagers who get no advise from parents or any other adult sometimes tend to walk down the wrong path making wrong decisions. When it comes to have sexual intercourse teens should protect them selves to avoid getting themselves in sticky situations. Teen girls have the choice of protecting themselves in many ways but it should be discussed with a relative they could get advise from. Teens should not have access to emergency contraception without parental consent because teens are not mature enough to know the consequences of consuming emergency contraception, which they might regret later in life.
First, most adolescents are not mature enough to make decisions that will change their lives forever. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius state, “Some older adolescents have the cognitive ability and capacity to reason similarly to an adult. However, neuroimaging studies have shown that the brain undergoes major reorganization during adolescence, particularly in the regions of the brain relating to executive functions” (qtd. in Christian Med.). In other words, the majority of teens lack maturity and wisdom to make life changing decisions (Christian Med.). In most situations, teens are desperate, and they make choices without thinking about the long- term consequences of their actions. If abortion is hard, enough in a grown woman imaging how it must be in a teenager with no one by her side to counsel and guide her. Imaging how confusing would be the mind of a fourteen years old girl going through an abortion without having her parents to tell her that everything will be fine. How can a fourteen years old girl handle that much stress?
Many teenagers are daft and confused, so her not knowing what to do is very common for someone of her age, which would bring about some harsh and quick choices that are not good for her. Therefore, her choices are not a product of something she has no control over because it is a result of the typical teenage personality. The main characters say and do wrong, which leads to important events unfolding, but these events did not happen by chance. The lack of thought put into their decisions causes the characters to act on their emotional personalities, which generates audacious events that are blamed on fate. The characters could easily divert the situations that define them, such as exile and destroyed love, but their young lives keep them from thinking properly. Overall, their age causes them to make decisions that are not the best for them, but they choose to make the decisions which still makes it in their
During the adolescent year’s children goes through physical and mental changes which could cause them to act deviant. Family support and good family structure is needed to help an adolescent cope with changes in their behavior. Other family crises such as parents’ divorce, death, and economics factor can trigger a child to act out differently as a mean to seek attention. Juveniles are not as good at decision making as adults, because they are young and does not have much experience in life they could make bad decisions that would make their life difficult. Youngsters do not think of the consequences of their action thus “they face deciding whether to engage in a risky behavior, such as taking drugs, shoplifting, or getting into a fight, in situation involving emotions, stress, peer pressure, and little time for reflection” (national academic press). Adults could think rationally where as children do not develop to think rationally between the ages of ten and seventeen thus children should not be punished as bad as an adult.
Though the basic concept of decision making may appear simple to most, several factors affect how the brain processes emotions into rational actions. First, environment affects a young adult’s view on what is acceptable in society to handle difficult and controversial situations. Rolf E. Muuss explains in his work Theories of Adolescence that “environmental influence stimulates, modifies, and supports growth” (113) in order to emphasize that the atmosphere one is in has a direct correlation with decision making capabilities. The surroundings and family structure one lives in and observes throughout the stages of development have permanent effects on personality, decisions, and futures of that individual. Although many adults may try to understand the thoughts behind a teenager’s irrational actions, few comprehend that the biological age rarely matches the mental age in the adolescent stage of maturity. John E. Horrocks explains that “mental age is an index of the developmental level in intellectual function that a child has reached at a given time” (443). The judicial system should take into consideration the rate of the brain development to see if the guilty pe...
The human brain stops developing in the early 20’s. Making your own life choices gives your life meaning. Making your own life choices isn’t good because some people can't handle the responsibilities or the consequences that come with that. Making your own life choices also allows for more freedom. Sometimes it’s ok for people to make their own life choices.
Wier, R. F., & Peters, C. (2004). Affirming the decisions adolescents make about life and
There are certain types of people that go out of their way to keep others happy. They influence and help others when they need it. While in this unique period of time, it can seem quite uncommon to see someone try to make a difference in their community. Most adolescents are much too absorbed in video games, cell phones, or other technology that comes into their lives to look at the bigger picture around them. This “bigger picture” consists of the community they live in, the school, church, and friends that mostly influence who they are if they so choose.
Teen years are formable years where children are often seeking to be more independent and have the respect of their parents and peers. Equally balancing the infrastructure of being a supportive parent and allowing your teen a healthy dose of freedom, is a tricky and tedious act. Balance must be struck to maintain your authority as a parent for their safety and wellbeing as well as the fact that you are overall still responsible for them.
The fact is it's part of your children's "job" to do stupid things. Bad decision making is an essential part of their road to maturity. A problem arises, however, if their poor decision making continues. This usually occurs when parents don't hold them responsible for their poor decisions, instead, bailing them out of the trouble their children get into. These children learn that they aren't responsible for their decisions and can continue to do stupid things with outfear of consequences.”
Risk taking is considered an everyday staple of life and a major part of growing up. When we limit the risks we take in our lives we also limit the capabilities those risks present, such as encountering new experiences and situations that improve us as human beings. Risk taking is imperative to personal growth and when discussed in good context it seems harmless, however that is only a half truth. To say risk taking is always safe is completely incorrect and sometimes these risks are often unsafe and not thought out. This essay addresses the following question, why do teenagers engage in this form of unhealthy risk taking? I will also be discussing whether or not certain groups are more at risk and any known strategies to make teenagers aware
Teens today face a lot of pressure. Many students deal with difficult life situations that hinder them from focusing on their futures. This can lead to a loss of interest in school and school events, such as a sports, clubs, or after school programs. Teens start to prioritize other things over their education. Every year, over 1.2 million students will leave school without earning a high school diploma in the United States alone (“11”). That’s a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day (“11”). The United States, which used to have the highest graduation rates of any country, now ranks 22nd out of 27 developed countries (“11”). Students may not realize that by dropping out of high school they are more likely to commit crimes, become parents at a young age, use and abuse alcohol and drugs, and live in poverty (“Drop”). Dropouts make up the majority of those